Head to head: Is Canada’s approach to shared parental leave impacting women’s advancement in the workplace?

In 2019, the federal government updated employment insurance parental benefits, including a new ‘use it or lose it’ option of five to eight weeks to be used only when parents shared the benefits, as well as the option to extend a leave from 12 to 18 months.

The aim of the new approach was to encourage more parents to share the work of raising children and to support working women. At the time, it was hailed as progressive and flexible but six years in, it’s clear it doesn’t actually support most women and creates confusion for both employees and employers.

When working parents select the 18-month leave, it pays out just 33 per cent of an employee’s salary across that time, compared to 55 per cent for the 12-month leave. In the midst of an affordability crisis, many people are barely scraping by on full salaries, so almost no one can afford to be on a third of their salary for 18 months. It puts women in an extremely vulnerable financial position with many reporting going into debt to spend time with their babies.

Read: Budget offers details on new five-week leave for second parent

The ‘use it or lose it’ portion has been slightly more positive we’ve seen an uptick in men taking time from work, which was the program’s goal. It’s a good start, but it doesn’t take into account the parents of multiples, single parents and other family dynamics where additional leave or shared benefits would make a substantial difference.

Being away from the workforce for 18 months is a big ask for employers and employees and puts women’s jobs at risk. To support women’s advancement in the workplace, we need to make sure parental leave is accessible, achievable and supported. Better supports for women and tax credits and incentives for employers may help to sustain the equity we’re looking to build.

Allison Venditti, founder of Moms at Work, HR professional and career coach

Canada’s attempt to support women in the workplace with an innovative and flexible parental leave plan is off to a great start, but we haven’t been able to calculate how it’s impacting the Canadian workplace.

The government introduced the ‘use it or lose it’ benefit to encourage more men to take leave and it’s working. So far, the uptake has been significant, with a rise from about 15 per cent in 2018 to 21 per cent in 2019 and 31 per cent in 2022.

Read: A look at extended parental benefits one year on

It’s important to see more men taking leaves of absence to raise children and for this to become normalized. Anecdotally, we’re seeing a lot of posts on LinkedIn and other social media platforms from fathers who are proudly taking leave and creating a new space for younger men to see this and to do the same.

However, the amount of parental leave that’s paid continues to be an issue in accessibility as families — not just women — will have a hard time living off 33 per cent or even 55 per cent of their salary (or in many cases much lower due to the maximum salary allowed under the EI system). If we’re able to address this, we’ll be well on our way to a world class program.

These changes in flexibility and shared leave options are how we truly support women’s advancement in the workplace; not by asking women to change or asking to do more, but by making it possible for others to step up and take on caregiving duties, the mental load and more. We’re seeing change in action — men calling benefits lines to ask for more information, managers talking about paternity leave and human resources teams asking ‘when’ they’re taking leave rather than ‘if.’

That’s systemic change and it’s something I didn’t think was possible through policy change so quickly.

Read: Diversity and inclusion key part of new parental sharing benefit